ABSTRACT
Nudging people could present them with subtle suggestions about behavioural choices, but there were never guarantees they could comply. Early on, the UK government had concerns about a hypothetical phenomenon called “lockdown fatigue” which posited that people might initially comply with their government's requests to change some of their everyday behaviours, especially if they were given relevant “nudges”, but their willingness to continue doing so would eventually wear thin. It would then be important to know how to motivate them to persist with movement restrictions. One alternative psychological model assumes that people will change their behaviour if they “reason” that it is the appropriate course of action to take. A theory of reasoned action emerged in the 1970s and evolved into a theory of “planned behaviour”. This model has been widely applied over many years with varying degrees of success in predicting behaviour change outcomes. It has also evolved and introduced new concepts covering a range of internal, cognitive processes that ultimately motivate behaviour, assuming they all line up optimally to do so. This chapter reviews the history of theory and research in social psychology that eventually resulted in the most modern version of this theory. Its efficacy in predicting behaviour change is also reviewed with referencing of relevant research. The model has also been critiqued and is by no means perfect.
